Is it possible?

I was watching a ball game, and afterwards, the coach of the losing team told the players they didn't come to play, that they were all asleep and disinterested.

I wonder. Is it really possible for a dozen people to be asleep or disinterested at the same time? If the team had won, would the coach have said the same thing, or would they have been praised for their resilience or whatever?

I think as coaches (because that's what we are in business), we have to dig a little deeper than to yell out cliches that really mean nothing. It's too easy to watch the scoreboard and declare that we lost because we all didn't care. It's tougher to identify what we did right and to isolate what one or two or five us could have done better.

I don't think we should praise a bad performance just to be nice, but I believe if we take the title of coach or manager, we owe to the team or company to be just as a "awake" and engaged as we want our players to be.

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
Fort Wayne, IN
www.labov.com